The Plague Dbq

The plague arrived by ship in October of 1347. The tragedy was extraordinary, killing around 60 percent of Europe’s entire population. About 50 million people were killed because of the plague in a seven year time span. Understandably, citizens were terrified that the disease was coming for their own village. The plague caused great panic and terror around all of Europe. People were never able to feel safe during this devastating time period.
The plague can be transmitted by contaminated food or water, dust or liquid droplets in the air, direct physical contact, or through the bite of infected fleas and rats. These pests were very common in medieval Europe but they were even more popular aboard ships. This is how the disease made its way through one European city to another. The Plague first struck Messina, and then made it through Marseilles and into Tunis in North Africa. Then it made it to Rome and Florence, which were two cities in the center of all of the trade. In 1348, the plague hit Paris, Bordeaux, Lyon, and London. At the time, there was no reasonable explanation for what was happening. Doctors and physicians relied on …show more content…
The first signs of this deadly disease were swellings or lumps in the groin, underarms, or neck. These swellings were called buboes, which were swollen, darkened, and painful lymph nodes. A bubo could become as large as an egg or apple, and blood and pus would often seep out of them. Following the buboes, livid black spots showed up on the body, usually on the arms and thighs first. Other symptoms include feeling sick, high fever, chills, headaches, delirium, helplessness, bumps under the skin, darkened skin, painful lymph nodes, white tongue, sensitivity to light. The plague was extremely contagious, even touching somebody’s clothes could spread the disease. The plague was very efficient with what it does inside of the human body. Someone perfectly healthy could go to sleep and wake up